title: Comparative neuronal differentiation of self-renewing neural progenitor cell lines obtained from human induced pluripotent stem cells.
abstract: Most human neuronal disorders are associated with genetic alterations that cause defects in neuronal development and induce precocious neurodegeneration. In order to fully characterize the molecular mechanisms underlying the onset of these devastating diseases, it is important to establish in vitro models able to recapitulate the human pathology as closely as possible. Here we compared three different differentiation protocols for obtaining functional neurons from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs): human neural progenitors (hNPs) obtained from hiPSCs were differentiated by co-culturing them with rat primary neurons, glial cells or simply by culturing them on matrigel in neuronal differentiation medium, and the differentiation level was compared using immunofluorescence, biochemical and electrophysiological methods. We show that the differentiated neurons displayed distinct maturation properties depending on the protocol used and the faster morphological and functional maturation was obtained when hNPs were co-cultured with rat primary neurons.
authors.affiliation: CNR Institute of Neuroscience and Department of Biotechnology and Translational Medicine, University of Milan Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Verpelli
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Carlessi
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bechi
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fusar Poli
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Orellana
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Heise
authors.forename: Silvana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Franceschetti
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mantegazza
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mantegazza
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Delia
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sala
keywords: Human neurons; induced pluripotent stem cells; neuronal differentiation; postsynapse; synapse formation